lid (Rodger Whitlock) wrote in
:

The "Penguin Cookery Book" by Bee Nilson (1952) has to take the
cake. Written during post-WWII austerity, it tells you how to
make mock-cream from milk and margarine. They even had a device
for the purpose; is there no end to British ingenuity?


I actually have a copy of this reprinted in about 1985, and sold as a
helpful cookbook for students.

Which, in fact, it is and was, though I think I bought it in 1989 for 50p
remaindered, so possibly not all that popular.

You have to look sideways at some of the detail - for example it says that
lamb 'is usually considered unpalatable unless very well done' which seems
a little contrary to modern approaches.

I think Nick's right about the lack of written evidence about use of herbs
outside the richer classes in the UK, (based on some rather cursory
research some years ago when I cooked for 'medieval' banquets).

This site: http://www.lileks.com/institute/gallery/index.html may amuse,
however.

An awful lot of the better/more authoritative food evidence is
archeological rather than written, and herbs are the kind of things that
would not preserve well in a rubbish pit.

As a useless by-comment: I understand that there is quite a lot of evidence
about food preparation from Hammurabis' Mesopotamia (c 1800 BC) The
recipes are on clay tablets, but apparently quite detailed. ;-)

Victoria